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Franz Fedier is one of the most important representatives of abstract painting in Switzerland. To mark the 100th birthday of the Uri painter, a new documentary film is being explored.
“Art is easy” is written on the door of Franz Fedier’s studio. That was his motto: Art has to be easy, it has to be fun. If you have to struggle with art, you’re doing something wrong.
This does not mean that Franz Fedier was reckless or superficial in his art. On the contrary: the Uri artist, who lived a large part of his life in Bern, has thought a lot about art and life.
Legend:
Thoughtful and clever: the artist Franz Fedier was just as interested in nature as in technical progress.
Franz Fedier private archive
His thoughts and notes are intelligent, self-critical, and always surprising. They are an important building block for the film “Fedier – Urner color virtuoso”. The actor Andri Schenardi, who also comes from the canton of Uri, has spoken to Fedier’s notes. Again and again he can be heard off-screen: thoughtful, clever, enlightening.
From Uri via Bern to Algeria
The Zurich filmmaker Felice Zenoni, who made a film about the Uri artist Heinrich Danioth in 2015, tells the life of Franz Fedier in a kind of road movie. The film takes us to the canton of Uri, where Fedier was born and spent his youth, and to Bern, where he spent his life as an artist.
But also to Paris and Lucerne, where Fedier learned, and to Basel, where he taught. And to Algeria, where he made formative journeys in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Meeting with companions
“Tour guide” in the film is Fedier’s granddaughter Alma Fedier. The 24-year-old is studying social anthropology and art history in Bern and has a keen interest in art in general and her artistic grandfather in particular.
With Alma Fedier, the camera travels to important stages in her grandfather’s life, meets relatives, friends, students, teachers and companions of the artist.
Legend:
A fresh look at a life’s work: the granddaughters Alma and Clara Fedier discuss their grandfather’s work with their father Marco (right).
Mesch & Ugge AG
Love of nature and enthusiasm for technology
At the side of Alma Fedier, for example, the Postbus takes you to the Susten Pass. The film spreads out the monumental mountain scenery, along with Franz Fedier’s thoughts about nature and the scars that the technical progress has left on nature.
Both are interesting for Fedier, both are reflected in his work: fascination for nature, interest in technology.
Legend:
Franz Fedier in the 1950s: He painted abstractly, but his pictures always had a relation to the real world.
Franz Fedier private archive
Franz Fedier wanted to carry out an art project on the Susten in 1970. He wanted to apply geometric patterns in clear colors on rocks and on the wide scree fields. The progressive project was not approved.
The film, however, shows on the computer how Fedier envisioned this work: as an exciting combination of immense nature and cool art.
Bold, but always close to the audience
The Steingletscher project on the Susten was not the only project that Franz Fedier was unable to implement. He had bold ideas – bold, but also close to the public.
Fedier didn’t just want to appeal to the small circle of art connoisseurs. He thought of the wider audience. He painted abstractly, but his pictures always had a reference to the real world, to nature and technology, to buildings and people.
Legend:
Abstract, but not inaccessible: Alma Fedier (left) with Barbara Zürcher in the Haus für Kunst Uri.
Mesch & Ugge AG
The painted devil stone
Time and again, Fedier devised projects to bring his art into the everyday world. He dreamed of flanking the Gotthard autobahn with dynamic color strips. And he wanted to paint the legendary Teufelsstein near Göschenen with a yellow devil.
In the film, what Fedier could not achieve in life succeeds: his family is allowed to implement the project and paint the rock. With the condition that the picture is removed again later.
Legend:
By no means hidden in detail: the oversized painting on the Teufelsstein, which the Fedier family carried out posthumously in 2021 based on an original sketch by Franz Fedier.
Mesch & Ugge AG
With his film, Felice Zenoni follows Fedier’s idea: He would like to present the artist and his art to the broadest possible audience. The film succeeds wonderfully in that it shows which landscapes and places have shaped Fedier – and which images these impressions inspired him to take.
Theatrical release: 6.1.2022